The present invention relates to improvements made to gas cooking appliances equipped with a top plate supporting at least one gas burner.
In general, the burners used in domestic or professional cooking appliances comprise a head or body equipped with a lid acting as a cap. This assembly constitutes the upper part of the burner where the flames are generated in the form of a single or double ring. Using developments suitable for constructing burners of the xe2x80x9cflatxe2x80x9d type, the aforementioned assembly may include an annular venturi defined between the faces opposite the head and the lid.
The lower part of the burner comprises an injector and is generally arranged in the form of an injector-holder which may either be constructed as an independent component fastened under the top plate of the appliance, or be made integrally with the top plate by hollow pressing thereof.
Whatever the construction of the injector-holder thus produced, the injector-holder appears as a cavity located below the plane of the top plate: the result of this is that this cavity collects the liquid overflows and thus its cleaning proves to be difficult.
An additional drawback lies in the height presented by such an arrangement: although its height (for example typically about 30 mm under the top plate) is especially small compared to the height of a burner of conventional design with a tubular venturi under the top plate, it nevertheless remains that this height under the top plate, although small, is not imposed by operational constraints of the burner and rather results from a practice which is widespread in the prior art.
However, there are pressing demands both from users for burners which are easier to maintain and to clean and from kitchen equipment manufacturers for cooking appliances of an even smaller height or extra flat and having as low a cost price as possible.
The invention aims to satisfy these needs.
To this end, a gas cooking appliance equipped with a top plate supporting at least one gas burner, being arranged according to the invention, is characterized in that the said gas burner comprises a gas injector which is fastened to the top plate in a part thereof which projects above the rest of the plate and this projection is in the form of a plateau.
Using this arrangement, the underlying cavity or pot of the burner, to the bottom of which the injector was conventionally fastened, is removed: the liquid overflows run directly over the generally flat top plate (with the exception of the part of positive elevation supporting the injector) and cleaning this flat surface is very easy.
Furthermore, by removing this pot, the burner assembly is now of small height, since all the constituent elements are located above the top plate, while it is possible, without affecting the operation of the burner, to keep the cap at substantially the same level as in the prior burners. In other words, removal of the pot does not lead to increasing the height of the burner above the top plate.
Finally, removing the pot removes a component part or an operation of forming the pot present in the prior burners, which is accompanied by a reduction in the cost of manufacturing the burner.
In one possible embodiment, the part of the top plate to which the injector is fastened and which projects above the rest of the plate is in the form of a plateau.
In another possible embodiment, the part of the top plate to which the injector is fastened and which projects above the rest of the plate is in the form of a boss, especially in the form of a spherical or hemispherical dome of upwardly oriented convexity.
The fact that the part supporting the injector is in the form of a region, stamped in positive relief, of the top plate proves to be particularly beneficial from the point of view of reducing the vertical size, since it is in the cavity defined by the said region under the top plate that the gas supply tube starts its bend and is connected to the injector.
Preferably, the part of the top plate to which the injector is fastened comprises upwardly projecting bosses distributed around the injector: the presence of these projecting bosses provides safety while preventing the cleaning element (cloth, sponge, etc.) coming into contact with the orifice of the injector, and producing a deposit which risks obstructing it, during cleaning of this part supporting the injector.
It is possible to envisage that the part for fastening the injector is constructed in the form of a component connected to the top plate.
However, it is also possible to envisage that the part for fastening the injector is integral with the top plate and is a stamped part thereof: this solution is particularly advantageous since it can be obtained by a single stamping operation together with the general stamping for shaping the plate and avoids a step of assembling a separate component.
The arrangements of the invention easily lend themselves to particular structural features required by certain manufacturers of cooking equipment: according to the required demands, the part for fastening the injector may be shaped so that the axis of the injector is substantially perpendicular to the top plate along the axis of the ring of the burner or off-axis (if the design of the latter allows it), or else may be shaped so that the axis of the injector is inclined with respect to a perpendicular to the top plate, without resulting in particular and/or additional manufacturing difficulties, whether the said part is a connected component or is integral with the top plate.